After one has flown, he will forever walk this earth gazing skyward, for he has been there and will always long to return…

Countless lives and fortunes have been saved by the mighty behemoth Mars Coulson Flying Tankers. Which are the world’s largest “Flying Boats ever flown operationally. In 2007 Coulson Aircrane Ltd. purchased the Hawaii and Philippine Mars to expand its firefighting capabilities and establish itself as the only operator worldwide to operate Sikorsky S61 Type 1 helicopters and the world’s largest water bombers.

Since purchasing the Mars water bombers, significant upgrades have been carried out on the Hawaii Mars to bring it to higher aviation and safety standards for modern-day firefighting. The “Next Generation” Hawaii Mars has an EFIS Glass Cockpit and the ability to stream live data from certain key on-board, indication systems. Other forms of data that are available from the aircraft in real time are Flight Tracking, Load Data measuring, Aircraft Performance statistics, Atmospheric Condition at Drop readings, and Accurate Drop Location reporting. It is reported that Coulson’s goal is always to provide a world-class operation that brings the highest level of safety and accountability to its customers in the Firefighting Industry. Our opinion is they are doing just that!

B-29 Superfortress in the WWII Gallery

ADS-B System will be mandatory in some aircraft by 2020, read about this system

We all need to learn as much as we can about the ADS-B and the VFR-GPS Now, so watch for the articles in our magazine that will give you the basic subject knowledge.

One of the best pictures we could find showing a cantilever wing example is this beautiful Comanche 250 which was pictured in the International Comanche Society’s gallery of N8378P (uploaded by David Lawrence ICS member, Thank you David for the use of this fine photograph ). A cantilever wing is a wing with no external bracing at all. In fact all the strength is within the structure itself. The spars are built in such a way that they carry all the bending and torsional loads within the cantilever beam.